The hauling of freight of assorted shapes, sizes and weight has established the need for a shipper to simply and conveniently convert the interior of a standard freight hauling vehicle into a specialized design which will accommodate the various load capabilities of assorted freight to be shipped, without materially reducing the interior size and capacity of the vehicle.
In a typical railway car or truck van, a horizontal bed or floor is provided for supporting articles being transported. Articles are placed on this bed, and depending upon the size of the articles, they may be stacked upon each other at two or more levels. In some instances, however, stacking of the articles may be impractical due to the weight or configuration thereof in which case, substantial amounts of the vehicle interior may be unusable. As an example, where the articles or containers therefore, are of a somewhat fragile character, damage to the articles would occur if stacked to the extent that the weight of the upper articles would damage lower articles. In those instances, it is often necessary to avoid stacking or to minimize the amount of stacking. The end result is a loss of useable cubic footage.
Some articles are also somewhat difficult to handle or load due to the weight and/or configuration thereof, and this also creates problems for individuals loading other articles on a bed. For example, even if articles at a lower level will not be damaged from weight when other articles are stacked thereon, the stacking operation itself may be quite irregular and inefficient due to the configuration, size and weight of the articles. This incompatibility can cause the freight to move, twist, shift, fall or become lodged in between; thus causing damage.
Attempts have been made to alleviate some of these problems by incorporating intermediate decks in vehicles. In such vehicles, stacking problems can be avoided since the deck will support the weight of the upper articles, and the amount of manual lifting of articles can be minimized if workmen can move around on a deck level. Vehicles with permanent decks are, however, of limited versatility. One reason being, their adjustability is limited in many cases to one fixed height. Another reason being their inability to support efficiently half width sections of a freight vehicle when the size and shape of certain articles deem it necessary. Furthermore, the use of collapsible or removable intermediate decks has not met with any success due to inefficiencies in the design of the decks which make the decks either too expensive for practical purposes or too inconvenient to use.
It is desirable to provide a means for the utilization of cubic footage which results from shipping odd sized freight or fragile freight and also to prevent damage by shifting freight. It is further desirable that such means be capable of installation by a single person and readily disassembled as the freight which is hauled changes.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,468,101 and 2,467,681 disclose the use of tracks for side walls and cross bars for forming means for bracing and dividing the lading within a vehicle to reduce damage from shifting freight. However, the arrangements formed with the side tracks and cross bars are not sufficiently versatile to accommodate irregularly sized freight.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,160,870 discloses a partitioning means which extends completely across the vehicle forming a bulkhead. The partitioning means is not used as a load bearing member.
It is a general object of this invention to provide an improved vehicle construction whereby articles can be more efficiently supported for transportation purposes.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a vehicle construction of the type described which includes an intermediate deck arrangement adapted to provide maximum efficiency in the use of the construction.
It is a more particular object of this invention to provide an intermediate deck construction which is capable of providing the necessary support for articles loaded in a vehicle and which is at the same time of a highly efficient design whereby the deck can be economically installed in a vehicle and operated in a convenient fashion.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide a lading separating and loading means which can be easily assembled and disassembled and can be readily modified for use with different load shapes and sizes.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a lading separating and loading means which can provide more usable space within a freight carrying vehicle.
It is also an object of the invention to provide lading separating means for dividing space horizontally in order to support freight vertically for the purpose of bracing freight.